


Twisted Sisters

by vinegarandglitter



Category: Orphan Black (TV), The Flash (TV 2014), iZombie (TV)
Genre: Gen, Multiple Crossovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-23
Updated: 2015-07-17
Packaged: 2018-04-05 18:06:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 11,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4189761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vinegarandglitter/pseuds/vinegarandglitter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finding herself at a loose end and mindful of Rachel's manipulation of Krystal, Sarah's decided that it's time to gather up her naive sisters across North America to let them in on the Clonespiracy. She couldn't have possibly imagined what she'd find - a zombie and a meta human. </p>
<p>Set post S3E10 Orphan Black. Post S1E14 The Flash (Fallout). Post S1E07 iZombie (Maternity Liv). AU for all fandoms from this point.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Clone Club

The trip to Iceland was all too short and soon Sarah found herself back in Toronto, trying to figure out her next move. While she'd been away, her sisters had settled into their own patterns.

Helena and Jesse were 'on vacation', as Helena had put it. Sarah wasn't sure where but from what Donnie had said about them, she figured it was the kind of vacation where you don't do a whole lot outside your hotel room. Honestly, Sarah still didn't know what to think of the pair, but out of all her sisters, Helena was the most capable of looking after herself and after everything that had happened, she deserved some peace for awhile.

Alison and Donnie had insisted Helena stay in touch with a daily phone call and were hard at work at Bubbles in Helena's absence. After some negotiation, Alison had agreed to employ Gracie at Bubbles again on a part time basis, which had given Gracie and Mark a chance to find themselves a permanent place to stay.

It was hard to stay angry at Gracie, given everything that had happened. Sarah recalled Beth's words in her hallucination in Mexico.

_We do terrible things for the people we love._

No one had heard from Delphine, their most useful lead in this whole Neolution business, since Cosima saw her the night they all had dinner. Sarah feared the worst. Their alliance with Delphine had been uneasy, to put it bluntly, but at the end of the day Sarah had always known Delphine was in their corner. Ferdinand, however, was a whole different story.

When Sarah asked if he knew anything about Delphine, he'd told her he knew nothing. He hadn't been entirely unhelpful - he'd secured a safe private facility for Cosima and Scott to begin work on sequencing the original genome, outside of Dyad's reach. Ferdinand's top priority was finding Rachel - which would lead them right to Neolution. At this point, it was the best plan they had and Ferdinand had told Sarah to sit tight.

"Sit tight? You?"

Sarah sighed and flopped back on Felix's couch.

"Yeah, it's not exactly me, is it."

"What's the plan?" Felix asked.

"That's the thing, Fee - I don't know. We're not in immediate danger, we've got the original and we're closer to a cure for Cos than ever. And all that science shit - I can't help with that. So what do I do?"

There was a knock at the door.

"Here's something you can do - open the door."

"Piss off. It's your apartment."

"Yeah, but it's bloody Clone Club central, so it's probably for you anyway. It's not like I've had time to take clients while waist deep in clonespiracy, have I?"

Sarah opened the door to reveal a nervous looking Scott.

"Scott, hey. Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Uh, kind of. So I've got my role playing buddies at Dyad - you know, the guys who helped me break out Rachel - and one of them got wind of something hinky with the whole Rachel being in a coma thing."

"Wait, I thought Rachel's with the Neolutionists."

"That's right," said Scott with a grin. "So who was in a coma at Dyad?"

"Oh my god," Felix whispered. "They got Krystal."

A wave of guilt blew through Sarah and she raked her fingers through her hair. "Shit."

"Wait - you said was?" Felix asked. "Where is she now?"

"Well, Dyad's kind of a bit of a mess right now, what with Nealon dead and Delphine AWOL, so we managed to get her out," Scott explained. "I, uh, was going to tell you about the whole thing but you were out of the country and we figured we could handle it."

"You got her out," said Sarah in disbelief. "Wow. Remind me to never underestimate you gaming nerds again."

"Where is she?" asked Felix urgently. "Is she alright?"

"She's, uh, right here."

Scott opened the door wider to reveal a rather battle-worn looking Krystal, still in hospital scrubs.

"Oh my god, it's you!" Krystal exclaimed as she saw Felix. "The mani pedi without the pedi."

"That's the first thing she notices?" said Sarah under her breath. "Really?"

"OH MY GOD!"

"And now she notices."

"This is so creepy!" said Krystal in a panicked tone. "I mean, Scott told me it was clones but I didn't really believe him but oh my god, you're _me_."

"I'm not you. I'm Sarah."

"Krystal. But I guess you already knew that." Her eyes travelled nervously to Scott, who nodded reassuringly. "Okay, so I'm taking a lot on faith here, but Scott got me out of the weird hospital where they had me all drugged up so I'm gonna trust him. He said you can tell me what's going on."

"I can tell you some of it," Sarah admitted. "But... look, it's heavy stuff, and once you know it, you can't take that back."

"Fine, okay. I just... I just need to know what the hell is going on. Please, Sarah."

"Okay. You'd better sit down..."


	2. Seattle

"Bless me father, for I have sinned. My last confession was... 10 years ago. Shit, that's a long time. Fuck, I'm sorry for swearing. Oh god... okay, can we start over on this whole confession thing? I'm really sorry, I'm just really nervous."

Kathryn Baxter, known as Kat to most who knew her, was what you'd call a lapsed Catholic. Having grown up in a rather traditional Catholic household, she'd more or less given up on religion when she went off to university at aged 18. She certainly hadn't been since she moved to America from New Zealand four years ago. Still, years of upbringing never really leave you and when things went really wrong, she'd have a chat with God about things and feel a bit better. But never confession. Not until now.

"Right. Okay. Let's try this again. Bless me father, for I have sinned. My last confession was 10 years ago. Since then... uh, let's see... I have been impure with a woman and a man... many times. I have disobeyed my parents... many times. I have abused drinking many times. I've done lots of stuff, basically. My main issue at the moment, though - like, the main reason I'm here, is because... well, this sounds crazy, but I think I have a demon in me."

"What makes you think that, my child?"

The priest sounds both bemused and more than just a little impatient.

"Okay, you'd think I was crazy if I told you, but I've been having these... urges. This all consuming hunger and until I... satisfy that hunger, I go crazy and... I'm worried I'll hurt people. And, I mean, I know what it looks like but I'm not exactly going to go about yelling out the word, but... you know, maybe I'd be better off completely dead."

"Remember, it's not up to you to decide when it's time for you to leave this earth," the priest warned, almost gently. "That's up to God. Making the decision yourself... it violates the fifth commandment and is against the will of God."

"I know," said Kat, resting her head against the confessional booth. "I just... living like this? With this... hunger? I can't control it and it's making me do things and I just... I don't know what to do. That's why I'm here, you know? I thought that maybe you could... I don't know, look into my soul and clean it and then I'd be free of this."

"I'm not sure I completely understand," the priest replied, his tone definitely softer than before. "But I can lead you through a prayer of repentance and God will absolve all of your sins."

Kat sighed. "Okay. Do you think that'll work?"

"God forgives us unconditionally - all we need do is ask and be truly repentant."

"Okay. For the sins I was just talking about, and all of the sins of my past life, especially the sins against, uh, purity and chastity and... I guess gluttony? I ask absolution and penance from you, Father."

"Alright. Say five 'Our Fathers' for penance."

Kat blinked. "That's it? I mean, aren't you gonna... like, exorcise me or something?" She lowered her voice and leaned in. "There is something really weird going on. I'm... I'm eating people's brains and I can't stop."

"You're... okay, right. Dominus noster Jesus Christus te absolvat-"

Kat could feel her stomach growling and a flash of red shot across her vision. She needed brains. She needed them soon or she didn't know what she'd do. All she had to do was push in the confessional grate and smash the priest's head in...

Kat jumped away from the grate as quickly as she could. "I don't think this is working for me, sorry."

She could hear the confusion in the priest's voice. "But we haven't finished-"

"Look, I'm really sorry, I just... I have to go."

As she hurried out of the church and down the street, she tried to ignore the people around her. Why had she thought that going to church would cure her? Grasping at straws wasn't really her nature but Kat was desperate. Ever since that boat party, she'd been craving human brains. Hardcore. She'd managed to snack on one of the victims of the boat party massacre at the time and squirreled away some of the brain for later, but since then it had been grave digging. Except for the one time when she... she didn't want to think about that. She really, really didn't want to think about that.

Turning the corner to her apartment, she thought to herself that there had to be another way. She'd heard rumours of that place Meat Cute but when she found out their prices, she knew there was no way she'd afford it. No, grave digging was her main option. It's not like there was a whole pile of dead people just sitting around somewhere, waiting for her to eat their -

_Oh my god. Of course. Why didn't I think of it before - the morgue._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's right folks, we've met our Zombie!Leda Clone, Kathryn Baxter. All the way from New Zealand, living in Seattle - as a Kiwi myself, I thought it was a nice nod to fellow Kiwi Rose McIver who plays Liv on iZombie.


	3. Central City

"Let me guess. Traffic was hell."

As Barry slunk into Central City Police Station half an hour late for work, all Joe could do was shake his head in bemusement. You'd have thought that the fastest man alive could manage to be on time for things, but if anything, Barry had become less punctual since he became the Flash. 

"Uh, yeah. Sorry I'm late." 

Joe had to admit, Barry's complete lack of punctuality grated on him a whole lot less since he'd taken up the Flash mantle. At least Joe knew he was doing something constructive with his time that was actually helping people, rather than just being chronically unorganised. And with super speed? Even if he was chronically late, if you needed him somewhere in a hurry, at least he could get there. 

"Let me guess - emergency at Star Labs?"

Barry looked at him sheepishly. "Actually, I overslept." Barry leaned and continued quietly. "I've been thinking a lot about this whole thing with me going back in time to save Mom. I mean, I know it's going to happen but I just don't know how yet - and it's killing me not knowing."

"Yeah, I've been thinking about it too." Joe sighed. "I've also been thinking a lot about how weird it is I'm even considering the idea of time travel as a possibility."

"Hey, this is Central City," said Barry with a grin. "These days, anything is possible."

"Detective West?"

Joe turned to see a younger officer whose name he couldn't quite recall with a woman he didn't recognise. From the looks of her, she was a civilian - relatively short, with brown eyes and dark curls that finished just above her shoulders. He'd pin her at mid 20s at the most - possibly a student, given her casual dress of jeans and a hoodie. 

"Detective, this is Lily Clay, she has some information she wanted to pass on."

Joe raised his eyebrows. "Information?"

The officer leaned in to Joe and Barry, blocking Lily from hearing them. "Look, what she's saying sounds weird, but I know there are weird things going on in this city and out of everyone on the force, you two seem to be the most equipped to deal with the weird stuff. It might be nothing, she might just be nuts but it won't take long to hear her out, alright?"

"Alright, we'll talk." Joe turned to Lily and gestured to a nearby room. "Shall we?"

"Thanks for agreeing to speak with me," said Lily somewhat nervously once they were all seated. "Look, there are some things I can't really explain about this but I know that something really bad is going to happen tomorrow."

"What sort of really bad something?" asked Barry.

"There's a group of people. I don't know who they are, I don't know their names. All I know is that tomorrow they're setting off a bomb in Central City Library, right in time for a group from the local elementary school to come and visit. If you don't stop them, there will be casualties."

"How do you know all this?" Joe asked. 

Lily shifted uncomfortably. "I... I overheard a bunch of them talking. Look, I don't know who they are but I can describe them."

"Where were you when you heard them talking?"

Lily bit her lip. "Look, anything I say now is going to sound crazy and normally I'd completely understand that you think I'm nuts, but I just need you to believe me about the bomb because it's going to kill a lot of people."

Barry leaned in toward Lily. "Trust me, I've come across a lot of crazy things in the last few months. If there's anyone you can talk to about crazy, it's me."

"Okay. I know this sounds hard to believe... but I can see into the future. And you have got to stop that bomb."

"Where are they keeping the bomb?" asked Joe. "Do you know where they are now?"

"I think so," said Lily. "I don't know where it is but I know what it looks like." She pulled out a folder from her bag and picked out a piece of paper. "Here, I've got some drawings that might help."

Joe picked up the drawings and flicked through them - all pencil sketches of various people, places and items. A tall, dark eyed man with a scar along the base of his jaw on the right. A room full of broken light bulbs and boxes of matches littered all over the floor. And one picture in full color of what must be the bomb - but it was nothing like any bomb he'd ever seen before. 

"Is this the bomb?" asked Barry, pointing at the colored image. 

"Yeah. I drew in all the wires in the colors they were there, but they were talking and mentioned that they'd just used random colors to confuse people. They had this whole argument about the red wire versus the blue wire so all the wires are yellow just to mess with people." 

"Okay, we need to get a team on these drawings," Joe said to Barry. "Figure out where the hell this is." 

"There were road works nearby," Lily added. "I could hear them from the building. So I guess an abandoned building near current road works?"

"Why come to us if you weren't sure we'd believe you?" said Joe. "Why not just leave an anonymous tip? Would have worked just as well."

"But then I'd have no way of knowing if you actually acted on it. And there was too much information for an anonymous tip. And I couldn't let a bunch of kids die."

"Lily, have other things you've seen in the future happened?" asked Barry. 

Lily nodded. 

Barry frowned. "And have you managed to stop things from happening before?"

"I've never tried, so I don't know," she replied. She looked Barry square in the eye as she continued. "I get the whole fixed point in time versus time can be rewritten thing. I watch Doctor Who. I just don't know which one applies here."

Joe picked up Lily's folder of images and moved toward the door. "Here's hoping time can be rewritten."


	4. Clone Club

“Mimosa?”

“Oh my god, yes.”

Sarah chuckled quietly to herself. “This kind of thing definitely calls for a drink, yeah?”

Krystal nodded as she took the glass off Felix and drank the entire beverage in one gulp. Felix raised an eyebrow.

“I'll bring the pitcher over.”

“This is just... I mean, I knew something was going on. I knew it. But I had no idea it would be this weird, you know?”

“You're preaching to the choir here,” Sarah admitted. “I never expected any of this.”

“How many of us are there?” Krystal asked. “Like, if this whole thing with Rachel trying to take my identity hadn't happened, would I have, like, run into another clone on holiday or something? Are there just all these versions of us running around?”

“I don't know exactly how many of us are there.” Sarah ran her hands through her hair. “Christ, I've never even thought about it. I don't even know how many I've met.”

“Let's see...” said Felix thoughtfully. “Okay, so there's Beth.”

“The police officer who killed herself,” Krystal confirmed. “God, that's just so awful.”

“She's where it all started for us,” said Sarah. “Then the next one I met was Katja-”

“Who Helena shot,” Felix added. At the horrified look on Krystal's face, he held her hand reassuringly. “Don't worry, Helena's... somewhat rehabilitated now, she's not going to hurt you.” Felix took another sip of his mimosa. “She killed a whole bunch of Euro clones back then, as well. Do you remember their names?”

“Danielle Fournier, France. Aryanna Giordano, Italy. Janika Zingler, Austria.”

Sarah remembered their names, alright. The three dead Euro clones had haunted her memories ever since she saw their passports.

“Right, okay. So there's Alison, who you'll meet,” Felix continued. “She's just won the election for school trustee. Very family oriented. She and her husband Donnie are in on the whole clone thing – they've got 2 adopted children, Oscar and Gemma.”

“That's another thing we need to discuss,” said Sarah, looking at Felix for support. He nodded. “Most of us... well, the clones were designed to be infertile. That's why Alison and Donnie adopted.”

“Oh,” said Krystal in surprise. “Okay, well... I'm totally not ready for kids right now, but... okay. Wow. That's... that's good to know, I guess.”

“There's more,” said Felix gently. “What they did to the clones to make them infertile... it also makes them sick. Eventually.”

“What kind of sick?” Krystal asked slowly.

“We've got the best people we know working on a cure,” Sarah assured her. “But... yeah, there have been clones who've died from it. And there's been a lot of shit go down around it but we're the closest we've ever been to a cure.”

“Cosima's a scientist. And a clone. And probably the most brilliant person I've ever met,” said Felix confidently. “She's got this. She has to.”

“Is she sick?” asked Krystal.

Sarah and Felix exchanged a look.

“Yeah, she is.”

“Okay.” Krystal poured herself another mimosa and drank it all in one gulp. “Okay. So that's... nine so far. Me, you, Beth, Helena, Danielle, Aryanna, Janika, Alison and Cosima. Oh, and Rachel. So that's ten.”

“We know about a few more,” said Sarah. “There's Jennifer – she was an American teacher and swim coach.”

“Was?” asked Krystal nervously. “Did she... was she sick?”

“She was,” said Felix gently. “But don't worry, honey – we've got the best people working on the cure. We're not losing any more of you.”

“He's right,” said Sarah with more confidence than she felt. “Cos is a genius, really. She and Scott, who you met – they're on top of all the science shit.”

“And who could forget one of our more entertaining clones, Tony?” Felix smirked into his drink.

“What's Tony like?”

“Tony's one of us – he's trans,” Sarah explained. "I don't know how much you know about-"

“When he was born he had a body exactly like mine or yours, cos we're clones, but he's actually a guy.” Krystal summised. At the slightly stunned look on Felix's face, she rolled her eyes. “Oh please – I'm a manicurist. At the end of the day, everyone's got nails, right?”

“I knew there was a reason I liked you,” said Felix with a smile.

“That's, uh, pretty much it for clones we've met. I know of a few more – Rachel arranged to have six self-aware clones killed in Helsinki.”

“I don't know where that is.”

“Finland.”

“So more Euro clones, then,” said Krystal. “I've always wanted to go to Europe but it sounds, like, super dangerous for us there.”

“I think Cosima said there was a Polish clone who was sick as well,” Felix added. “And that she'd... uh... passed as well.”

“Okay, so that's like... nineteen,” said Krystal with a small frown. “Like, nineteen we know about.”

“Yeah, I guess it is,” replied Sarah. “Fuck, I'd never counted.”

“Well, like – what about the ones we don't know?” Krystal asked. “What's gonna happen to them?”

Sarah and Felix exchanged yet another look.

“Like, I didn't know what was happening and I knew it was something and then I wake up in a hospital bed with my eye covered and it's all super, super creepy,” Krystal continued, her voice gaining passion as she continued. “And I know now but what if I never had? Don't we have a responsibility to all the other clones out there to make sure they're safe?”

“Hey, we've been going from crisis to crisis here,” said Sarah defensively. “There's Dyad, and Proletheans and Neolution – there are so may people out there and I've just been trying to protect my own.”

“What about the clones that don't have you to protect them?” asked Krystal. “Like, I know it's been super hard, but shouldn't we be looking for the other ones? To warn them?”

“They don't all know about this, Krystal,” Sarah warned. “And everyone's different – they might not want to know. I can't just decide to completely change their lives with this information. This is why I wanted to keep you in the dark.”

“Yeah, by stealing my identity!”

“Okay, ladies, I think we need to take a breather here,” Felix announced. “Krystal – there's been a lot going down and Sarah's right – we've been going from crisis to crisis. We haven't exactly had time to figure out what to do about the other clones.”

“Thank you Fee.”

“But-”

“Oh shite.”

“Krystal also has a point,” admitted Felix. “Maybe if we seek out some of the other clones, we can help them. Keep them safe. Knowledge is power and all that.”

Krystal downed another mimosa. “I knew I was right.”

“I think we need to put this to a vote,” Felix announced. “Clone Club assemble and all that. Really talk this over and figure out what we're going to do.”

“Fee, I just don't think-”

“Sarah,” said Felix forcefully. “You said it yourself – you don't do sitting tight that well. This could be a chance for us to take a step forward for us. To help all your sisters – and brothers, and genderqueer siblings. Who knows who's out there?” He leaned in with a smirk. “And aren't you at least the little bit curious?”

“Shite.”

 

 


	5. Seattle

There was only one left. 

One single, solitary piece of brain brownie. 

Oh, how had life come to this? 

Kat sighed as she pulled the brownie out of the freezer and put it on a plate to put in the microwave. This particular brain she'd dug up nearly a month ago. The first bite she'd had raw and unadulterated, not even caring about the metallic aftertaste given her hunger. Once she'd sated the overwhelming need, she'd taken the rest of the brain home and suddenly been struck with culinary inspiration. 

Clearly, she'd just eaten a passionate baker who loved experimenting with new ingredients. Out came the blender and before she knew it, Kat had used the brain to make 3 batches of chocolate chilli brownies. Thinking practically, she'd cut the brownies into squares and kept them in the freezer. 

The brain brownies weren't terrible. It wasn't like she could taste much these days anyway but there was the faint residue of sweetness in with the chilli powder, and it completely masked the metallic taste. And it seemed like the brain she was eating was one of those thrifty people who liked to create recipes and work with what she had – so the next time she had a fresh brain, she already had about a dozen different ways of preparing it written down. 

That was something, at least. 

Still, a brownie every few days was only just keeping the edge off her hunger. After her encounter with the priest, she'd eaten three to try and get on an even keel. Now she was down to her very last brownie. She'd put off eating it as long as she could but finally she'd had to. 

Now she had to make a decision. Did she go dig up another grave (which was, by the way, one of the most distressing things she'd ever had to do) or did she risk sneaking in to the morgue and trying her luck? 

Before her undeath, Kat had been very fond of pro/con lists and even though circumstances had changed, they were still her go-to for difficult decisions. 

Pro: Not having to dig a grave. 

Con: Possibly more likely to come across someone who's been brutally murdered. 

Pro: Not having to dig a grave.

Con: Morgues probably have way better security than graveyards. 

Pro: Not having to dig a grave. 

Con: If she got caught breaking in to the morgue, she could get arrested. And if she were arrested, she'd either have to a) break out to get food before she went into full zombie mode, and then be on the run forever or b) go into full zombie mode and kill a bunch of people, thus exposing her secret and probably causing a whole load of trouble. 

Pro: Not having to dig a grave.

Sure, to some people it might look like the cons vastly outweighed the pros – and most people would be right. But Kat really, really, really didn't like digging graves. See, when she was a kid, she'd fallen down a man hole that had collapsed on itself. She'd spent three days underground while people dug her out. And maybe dying was supposed to cure you of childhood phobias, but in her case, it really hadn't. Going to the graveyard to dig up a body was too close to being buried alive. And she couldn't do it any more. 

She just couldn't. 

So she'd purchased a balaclava as well as an all black outfit and a crowbar, and watched a bunch of YouTube videos on how to break in to places. (Kat would never cease to be amazed about what you could find on the internet.) She was as prepared as she was ever going to be. 

So she finished the brownie and half a bottle of whiskey, then got ready to go. It took a lot more alcohol to get her drunk these days, so it didn't have that much effect, but at the end of the day, it was really the idea of the thing that counted. 

The local morgue wasn't actually that far away from her house, for which she was grateful, meaning she could ride her bicycle there. It was therein that Kat came across her first problem – her backpack, which she'd need to store brains in, was bright orange with reflective panels, and not exactly discrete. Still, the last thing she wanted was to get hit by a car because they couldn't see her bike, so she guessed that was fine...

This was all turning out far more complicated than she would have liked. 

Still, she managed to sneak in to the morgue just fine. The hairiest moment was getting past a couple of security guards, which she managed to after waiting awhile. Then she spotted a rather handsome looking Indian man in a lab coat heading down some stairs. Jackpot – he was probably the medical examiner. 

As steathily as she could, she followed him down the stairs and into the morgue area. He went through a door and she headed straight ynder a table. She could wait for awhile if he was doing other things. 

After a few minutes, Kat heard footsteps. She poked her head around the table leg to see a woman in a lab coat with platinum blonde hair, picking up what looked like some kind of saw. Something about her appearance set off alarm bells... and watching what she did next only confirmed her suspicions. 

The platinum blonde woman in a lab coat sliced open a skull, took out the brain and put it on a plate. 

“Hey Ravi, what did you say this brain was?”

“Uh, she was a florist. She was in a car crash, so hopefully no murders to solve.” 

Okay, that settled it. With a start, Kat climbed out from under the table. 

“Hi!”

“Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?” asked the blonde woman. 

Kat bit her lip. “There's no easy way of saying this, is there.... okay, my name's Kat. And... uh... are you gonna eat that?”


	6. Central City

Lily Clay's information about the bomb checked out. It didn't take long for Barry to locate and disarm the explosive, as well as put the offenders into police custody.

It also didn't take long to realise that “Lily Clay” didn't actually exist. 

“So it's a fake name,” Joe said with a shrug. “Doesn't surprise me, really. Still, plenty of people saw her, we can get a sketch artist.We probably caught her on surveillance. If, that is, we actually need to find her.”

“Of course we need to find her,” insisted Barry. “She's a metahuman.”

“Or she got wind of criminal activity and is using the whole 'I can see the future' thing as a way of protecting herself.”

“Why would she lie about that?”

Joe snorted. “Because it's no secret that weird stuff happens around here.”

Barry frowned. “But the weird stuff is real. She could actually be seeing into the future.”

“Sure, she could be,” Joe agreed. “But it's not the only explanation. And this ain't as cut and dry as watching a man turn into mist, or someone running super fast.”

“So you're telling me that despite everything you've seen, you're still hanging on skepticism?”

“I'm not hanging on to anything,” said Joe. “I'm just saying that in this case, there's a logical explanation to the whole 'see into the future' thing.”

“Well, I believe her,” Barry insisted. “And it doesn't seem like she's trying to use her powers for evil. She should know she's not alone.”

“Uh-huh. So you're just gonna, what, tell her you're the Flash? You don't even know this girl.”

Barry knew Joe had a point. But still, he was convinced he needed to find the mysterious “Lily Clay”.

Given Joe's reaction, he thought the team at STAR Labs might have a more positive perspective.

“You're telling me this girl told you the library was going to blow up, and she knew this because she can see into the future,” said Caitlin dubiously. “No offense, Barry, but Joe's got a point – how do we know she wasn't in on it?”

“Seeing into the future – you gotta admit, that sounds awesome,” said Cisco with a grin. “But how do you prove it? Get her to give us lottery numbers? Hey, thats not a bad idea...”

“So who is this woman?” asked Dr. Wells. “You said she gave a pseudonym?”

“I managed to get a police sketch,” said Barry. “So I figured I'd use the facial recognition software here and see if I can find her.”

“Okay, let's give it a go,” Cisco said with a grin as Barry passed him the sketch. “Hey, she's kind of cute.”

“Obviously that's the main thing,” muttered Caitlin under her breath.

“Seeing into the future,” mused Dr. Wells. “If this woman really has that ability, then it raises a whole load of questions. Namely, is what she sees a possible future, or is time in flux – which is incredibly, incredibly dangerous.”

“She said she hadn't tried to change the future before,” Barry explained. “But she said she knew there was going to be an explosion at the library and it was going to kill children. She couldn't deal with that.”

“It's entirely possible she was in on the bomb plot,” Caitlin argued.

“A metahuman with this kind of ability – well, it's not entirely outside of the realm of possibility,” countered Dr. Wells, his expression grave. “I think we need to look into this further.”

“Look, she didn't strike me as some kind of criminal mastermind,” said Barry. “I think she's genuinely a metahuman who just wants to help. And we could definitely do with one of those.”

“Whoa, okay guys, you should really see this.”

Barry turned to look at Cisco's screen. “Holy...”

“Are you sure Felicity's facial recognition software doesn't have some kind of weird bug going on?” asked Cisco. “Cos, uh, there are literally dozens of women with these identical faces all over North America.”

“Miranda Acevedo, Ella Stokes, Elizabeth Childs, Megan Palmer, Joanna Beaudry, Nadine Kohl, Jennifer Fitzsimmons, Lisa Eberhart, Cosima Niehaus... oh my god, these women are all completely identical,” said Caitlin in amazement. “And they're all over the continent.”

“This is a whole lot weirder than a woman who says she can see into the future,” said Cisco.

“Sarah Manning, Alyssa Moore, Kathryn Baxter, Rosanna Bianchi, Jacinta van Druten, Evelyn Carpenter... hey, I think it's this one.”

“Barry, you do realise these are identical women?” asked Cisco.

“Yeah, but they have different hair,” Barry pointed out. “And it was her I met. Evelyn Carpenter. With the short curly hair.”

“Have you ever heard of a haircut?”

“No, I'm sure it was her,” Barry insisted.

“Looks like she's here in Central City,” Caitlin pointed out. “Which maybe should have been the first thing we looked at.”

“Okay, so I track her down and find out more about her ability to see into the future,” said Barry.

“And maybe ask her if she knows anything about the fact that, at last count, there are at least thirty women here who look exactly like her,” added Caitlin.

“It's gotta be a human cloning experiment,” said Cisco with a broad grin. “Cloning, am I right?”

“It's a valid theory,” mused Dr. Wells. “Intriguing.”

“So we check it out,” Barry said determinedly. “Figure out how she knew about the bomb.”

“And the clones,” Cisco chimed in. “Don't forget the clones.”

“Yeah, we're not gonna forget the clones.


	7. Clone Club

“This is, like, the most surreal moment of my entire life,” Krystal announced as she looked around the room. 

“It's certainly an interesting gathering,” said Alison, putting a large platter on the coffee table. “I thought I'd bring some refreshments, so please help yoursel to a cupcake – chocolate, vanilla, red velvet and salted caramel.”

“I bring pork rinds and beef jerky,” announced Helena. “Also donuts. These I like most.” 

“How was your vacation, Helena?” asked Cosima. 

Helena's face broke into an enthusiastic grin. “Very nice. We make love in tow truck. Many times.”

“Yeah, well, we're sorry you had to cut it short.”

“It is no problem.” Helena looked over at Krystal. “Seestra Krystal has the most beautiful hairs.”

“Oh. Uh, thank you.”

“This is so cool, though,” said Cosima with a grin. “I mean, who can say they've been in a room with four of their genetic identicals?” 

There was a knock on the door. 

“Better make that five,” said Felix.

“Oh, is that Tony?” asked Cosima. 

“Tony is the, ahem, transgender clone?” said Alison, her tone somewhat uncertain. 

“That's me,” said Tony as he walked in. “Hey gang.”

“Tony,” Felix greeted him.

Tony winked at him. “Before we go any further, just thought I should give you a heads up – brought along a friend.” A woman appeared behind him and gave a small wave. 

“Oh my god,” said Krystal. “Does this every get any less weird?”

“Uh, hi,” said Sarah, sizing up the unknown woman with her face. This new clone was a mess of colour, with bright blue hair, sparkly silver tights, a lime green mini dress, and bright pink eyeshadow. 

“This is Miranda Acevedo,” said Tony. 

“People call me Bug,” she added. 

“Bug?” asked Alison. 

“It's my online handle,” she explained. “I work with computers.”

“What she means is, she's a hacker.”

“Oh for fuck's sake, Tony.” Bug rolled her eyes. “That was not the impression I wanted to make on these people.” 

Cosima was the first one to get to her feet. She headed to Bug and gave her a big hug. “I'm Cosima,” she said with a smile. Cosima gestured to Bug's tattooed arm. “Love the sleeve.”

“Thanks!” said Bug with a grin. “It was a bitch to get done – it took, like, five sessions?”

“It looks awesome.” 

“I, uh, haven't met everyone,” said Tony. “I guess we do introductions then get down to business.”

“Whoa, this is so trippy,” said Bug as she surveyed the room.

“Tell me about it,” muttered Sarah. 

“Cool, okay,” said Cosima, who seemed to have taken it upon herself to be the welcome brigade. “So, I'm Cosima – I'm, like, the science. Evolutionary development, which is totally ironic given the whole clone thing. Uh, this is Alison – Alison, you want to tell the gang a bit about yourself?”

“Well, I'm married, with two beautiful adopted children,” said Alison with a smile. “My husband and I run a local business and I've recently become trustee for my school district.”

“Awesome,” said Cosima. “This is Helena.”

“I help seestra Alison make soap,” said Helena, while wolfing down her third cupcake. “I have science baby inside me and my boyfriend Jesse will help me raise baby while I drive tow trucks.”

“Krystal here is pretty new to Clone Club as well,” said Cosima, smiling at Krystal. “She's a manicurist and she's really good.” Cosima brandished her nails at Bug. “Check it out – she did mine before you guys came. This is seriously the best my nails have ever looked.”

“My nails are a total nightmare,” said Bug, with an easy smile at Krystal. “Maybe you could help me sort mine out at some point?” 

Krystal had been staying with Felix since her escape from Dyad. Sarah, still dealing with the guilt from what happened, had done everything in her power to make feel safe, including accompanying her back to her apartment to collect all the belongings she needed. Which, of course, included her manicure equipment. To get some sense of normalcy, Krystal had been giving manicures to everyone – even Scott, who seemed to have a soft spot for her and had let her paint his nails bright pink.

“I would love that,” said Krystal with a smile. 

“Well, you're certainly taking this whole thing in your stride,” said Sarah to Bug. “I'm Sarah, by the way.” 

“I've heard all about you from Tony,” she replied. “And, yeah, okay – this whole clone thing is hard to swallow, but it's also hard to ignore when the evidence is right in front of you.” 

“How did you guys find each other?” 

“It was kind of an accident,” said Tony. “I caught up with a contact for a job down in Florida and his contact said I looked a whole lot like his ex. So we got in touch and I explained the whole clone thing – well, what I know about it, anyway. I figured you probably had enough on your plate, Sarah.” 

“I don't mean to interrupt the catching up,” said Felix, glancing at Sarah, “but there's a reason we're all here. Time to get stuck into it.”

“Right,” said Sarah, looking around the room at her brothers, sisters and supporters. “Tony and Bug, I'll get you up to speed with what's been going on.”

Sarah launched into an edited tale of Dyad, Castor, Coady's plans, the clone defects, the role of the original, Cosima and Scott's work on the cure (which was coming along), Neolution and their newfound, albeit uneasy alliance with Ferdinand from Topside.

“Holy shit,” said Bug, eyes wide. “That's intense.”

“I knew there was shit going down, but... fuck, we were really out of the loop, weren't we?”

“Sarah's had a lot on her plate,” said Cosima gently. “She's been keeping us safe.” She looked around the room pointedly. “All of us.”

“Krystal raised a really good point,” said Felix carefully. “We don't know how many of you are out there – and we don't know what's happening to you. Krystal didn't know what was happening and she got caught up in Rachel's plans. Maybe if she had, things might have gone differently.”

“But we don't know that,” said Sarah gravely. “If we'd told her earlier, things might have just gotten worse. Dyad is keeping tabs on all of us – they're monitoring all the clones. The only reason Helena and I weren't monitored was because we were hidden in the foster system.” 

“How many of us are there?” Alison asked. “Is there any way of knowing?”

“Sarah said there were 19 she knew about,” Krystal chimed in. “I guess 20 now with Bug. But they're mostly in Europe? I guess Europe is big, though.” 

“So is North America,” countered Cosima. “I think it's really unlikely that there are 6 clones in Finlad but only us in North America. There have got to be, like, tons more.”

“I guess that means we have 3 questions,” said Sarah. “One, how many of us are there? Two, how do we find them? And three, what do we do when we find them? Do we completely change their lives by telling them about this whole crazy conspiracy?”

“I think I can help with one and two,” announced Bug. The room turned to look at her. “Okay, so when I found out about this whole clone thing, it was a little hard to swallow. I mean, one person who looks like me – cloning's not the logical answer. We could just be twins separated at birth. So I ran my picture through facial recognition software and I found others.”

“How many others?” asked Alison. 

“Sixty-six in North America,” she announced. Bug reached into her bag and pulled out a laptop. “I've even got a list.” 

“Are you serious?” said Felix in amazement. 

“Whoa, that's intense,” said Cosima. “So, is there, like, a logical split? 23 in Mexico, 23 in the States, 23 in Canada?” 

“It's not quite that straightforward,” explained Bug. “I got really stuck into the data and found out some interesting things, with a little help from running facial recognition on some pictures from when I was a kid. From what I can see, there were 15 of us born in Canada, 35 born in the US and 10 born in Mexico. There were 3 Canadian clones, 2 Mexican clones and 10 American clones that left the country from ages 10 and 20. But to counter that, there were 16 clones who arrived in America from different parts of the world, as well as 5 in Canada – including you, Sarah.” 

“So you can actually do that?” asked Krystal. “Find all that information?” 

“Not a lot of people could,” said Bug with a grin. “But I'm pretty much a complete genius, so...”

“We talked about finding the others,” said Tony to Sarah. “But we were asking ourselves the same questions – would we be seriously messing up these people's lives? As in, do we have the right to do that?”

“But they have the right to know,” countered Krystal. “To keep them safe. And it's like a huge thing to not know about yourself – if they don't know, then isn't their whole life a total lie?” 

“This whole... clone thing,” said Alison deliberately, “it's difficult. It's not an easy thing to know about yourself. I know there was definitely a time where all I wanted was a normal life. Shaking up other people's lives like that... I don't know if that's something I want to be responsible for.”

“This is all well and good, arguing morals,” said Cosima gently. “But we're not addressing the really import thing here. That is, that we're all going to get sick, just because we're clones.”

The room went silent. 

“I didn't mean to bum everyone out,” continued Cosima. “But this is really heavy stuff. And with the whole Dyad versus Neolution bullshit that's going on – how do we know who we can trust with the cure? And if we don't know who to trust, what's going to happen to our sisters – and brothers – when they get sick?”

“That's, uh, that's something I did notice when I was doing the research,” said Bug carefully. “Out of the 66 of us, 23 are dead.” 

“Were they all sick?” asked Alison. 

“14 of them died of a mysterious respitory illness,” said Bug. “The other nine... a whole pile of weird. Car accidents, unsolved murders, an accident with a ski lift, a suicide...”

“Beth,” said Sarah quietly. 

“This Dyad,” said Tony. “They're keeping tabs on all of us, right? So what if we all start talking to each other – they're all gonna notice.” 

“The whole point of this experiment is that we don't know we're clones,” agreed Cosima. “So a whole bunch of us becoming self-aware... what would they do if that happened?”

“If we were causing problems – Helsinki,” said Sarah gravely. 

“Helsinki?” asked Bug. 

“Six self-aware clones, all killed in one day,” said Felix. 

The room went quiet. 

“I protect all my seestras,” said Helena fiercely, piping up for the first time. “Many times they try to kill me – it is very difficult.”

“If we stick together, then it's gotta be harder to kill us, right?” asked Krystal, her voice shaky. 

“We've all got lives,” Alison countered. “People we care about.” She clasped her hands on her lap. “What if they targeted my children?”

“I do not let them threaten babies.”

“I think what it all comes down to is finding the cure,” said Cosima. “Dyad may not always have our best interests at heart, but we're their experiments. And without the cure, we will all die out.”

“The cure is our best leverage,” continued Sarah. “I know.”

“There's always something else we could try for leverage,” Bug suggested. 

“What?”

Bug grinned. “Get me into Dyad. Give me five minutes with one of their computers. I'll have more leverage than you'd know what to do with.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew, this was a long one. This story is taking some interesting turns. I hope you're enjoying it! If you'd like to talk to me about Orphan Black, iZombie or The Flash, feel free to message me on Tumblr. You'll find me at peridot-rises.tumblr.com :)


	8. Seattle

“Let's be honest,” said Ravi matter-of-factly. “I'm surprised this hasn't happened sooner.” 

Liv took in the woman in front of her who'd introduced herself as Kat. At a glance... yeah, definitely a zombie. Pale hair, pale skin – she'd taken a similar approach to zombiedom as Liv herself had and was rocking the dark eyeliner and a goth-y look in all black. Although that could just be what you wear when you're breaking and entering. 

“Uh, Liv?” said Ravi, sounding slightly worried. “How about you give our new friend here some of that brain? She's looking, uh, kind of hungry.” 

Kat let out a low growl and her eyes flashed red. 

“Whoa, okay, here you go.” Liv handed over the brain and Kat bit into it with relish. Liv scrunched up her nose in disgust. “I would offer you hot sauce, but you seem to be doing okay...”

It only took a moment for Kat's eyes to turn back to their normal color. She looked down at the brain she was eating, seeming to have come back to herself. “God, that's disgusting.” She looked over at Liv and Ravi apologetically. “Uh, could I get a napkin?” 

“I've got some in the back,” said Ravi as he turned to go. 

Kat gestured to the brain. “Do you want the rest of this back, or...”

“You can have it,” said Liv. 

“That would be so awesome,” said Kat gratefully. “Give me a moment – I brought Tupperware.” 

“So I'm guessing this whole 'ransack a morgue for fresh brains' plan was premeditated, then?” asked Ravi as he came back with a roll of paper towels. 

“Look, I realize that this is technically stealing,” said Kat as she took a paper towel and wiped the blood off her face. “And I'm really sorry but at the end of the day, this is for the greater good. I could be out murdering people.” 

“How long have you been taking brains from here?” asked Liv. 

“This is my first time, I swear.” Liv could swear she saw the other pale-skinned woman blush as she packed up the brain into the Tupperware she had indeed brought with her. “Would you believe I only just thought of this?” 

“Where did you get your brains before?” asked Ravi gently. “Were you...”

“No, I didn't kill anyone,” said Kat quickly. “I dug graves. But... I don't deal well with grave digging. Major PTSD – I was trapped underground for three days when I was a kid. So when I realized I could come here, I decided to risk it, even if it meant getting pinged by security.” Kat smiled at Liv. “I totally didn't expect to find another zombie. You've got an amazingly sweet deal here, you know?” 

“It definitely beats murder or grave robbing,” Liv agreed. 

“Uh, so I overheard you saying this guy is Ravi,” Kat said, gesturing at Liv's boss. “But I didn't get your name?”

“Liv Moore.” 

Kat laughed. “Are you serious?” 

“The irony is not lost on me,” said Liv with a roll of her eyes. “So... I guess this is the question we ask now. How did you become a zombie?”

“Boat party,” said Kat. “I guess you might have heard about it in the news?” 

Liv nodded. “I was there, actually.” 

“Ah, cool.” Kat frowned. “I mean, not cool – I'm sorry. This all kind of blows.”

“That's an understatement.” 

Kat looked over at Ravi and frowned. “You're human. Are you human?”

“Ah, yes. Yes I am.” Ravi clasped his hands together and smiled. “But I am working on a cure so you can be, too.”

Kat frowned. “A cure?” She turned to Liv. “Is he serious?”

Liv nodded. “He's serious. Ravi's working on a real, honest to God cure.” 

Kat looked at Liv in silence, her expression unreadable for a long moment. Then, she did something unexpected. 

She burst into tears. 

“Whoa, whoa, it's okay,” said Ravi in a hurry. “Here, have another paper towel.”

“I'm sorry,” Kat sobbed. “It's just... I thought I'd be like this forever. I wasn't sure how much longer I was going to be able to deal with this, you know?” 

Liv felt a rush of empathy. This girl was in the same boat she was in – literally. And it wasn't something she'd wish on anyone. She took a step toward her. “Is it okay if I hug you?” 

Kat started crying harder. “Oh god, I haven't hugged anyone since... yes please.” 

Liv put her arms around Kat and patted her back as comfortingly as she could manage. “I know this really sucks, but you're gonna get through it, okay? We both are.” 

“This is not what I came here to do,” said Kat between sobs. “I came here to steal brains, not to get hugs.” 

After a few moments, the two zombies separated and Ravi passed Kat yet another paper towel. As Kat went about cleaning up her rather smudged eyeliner, Liv looked at Ravi. 

“Okay, so I'm not suggesting we run a food truck here, but we can hook Kat up with brains when she needs them, can't we?”

Ravi nodded. “I don't see why not. If she's anything like you, it's not like she eats all that often.” 

“I was thinking about this before I came,” said Kat, “and just wanted to check – do you get murder victims here?” 

“Murder victims are pretty much Liv's main source of snack,” said Ravi. 

Kat's eyes widened. “You intentionally eat murder victims? That means... how on earth do you convince the police that your visions are real?”

“Whoa,” said Ravi. “Color me impressed – you figured that out quick.”

“The police think I'm psychic,” Liv explained. 

“The visions are intense,” said Kat, her expression troubled. “It's the worst part of this whole thing... seeing a person, understanding what they used to be.” She paused for a moment. “You said this person was a florist?”

“Yup.” 

“I've met some weird florists in my time.” 

“I was wondering if I could take some samples,” said Ravi to Kat. “Blood, hair, that sort of thing – it's all to help with the cure research.” 

“Of course,” said Kat enthusiastically. “Anything to help. You can have a fucking limb for all I care.” 

“Okay, let me get my gear,” said Ravi as he headed to the door. “Just to clarify, I don't actually need a limb – just blood and hair will be fine.” 

“So you help the police solve murders,” Kat said to Liv. “Does it help?”

“Kind of?” Liv admitted. “Nothing's really going to change the fact that I eat people now. That's my life until Ravi finds the cure. But if I can help – even if the visions are horrifying – then it makes it a little bit easier to deal with.”

Kat nodded, her expression grave. “And I guess some of it is penance,” she said quietly. “It's awful, knowing that's what I have to do to survive. If I eat a brain that's had something awful happen to them... I feel like I deserve to feel that, you know? Even though I hate it.” 

“Yeah,” Liv admitted. “It's part of it.” 

Kat fiddled with the sleeves of her shirt. “I was going to kill myself, you know.” 

Liv nodded. “I've thought about it, too.” 

“Why not, right?” said Kat with a humorless laugh. “I'm already dead.” 

“Hey, neither of you are killing yourselves on my watch,” said Ravi sternly as he came back in with his blood testing kit. “I promise you, I'm doing everything I can to find a cure. Starting with taking this blood sample, so hold still – Liv assures me this doesn't hurt a bit.” 

“It's so weird,” said Liv to Kat conversationally. “Do you want to hear about the time Ravi gave me open heart surgery without anesthetic?” 

“Not if I want to keep down my brains.”


	9. Central City

“I still don't think this is a good idea.” 

Cisco rolled his eyes. “Come on, you don't think I can handle it?” 

“I just feel weird about this. You're not exactly used to being backup.”

“Think of me more as moral support,” said Cisco with a grin. 

Barry looked at the piece of paper in his hand, then at the door. Evelyn Carpenter's last known address. In terms of tracking down metahumans, this was probably the most straightforward way of finding someone they'd ever encountered. 

“You gonna knock?” asked Cisco.

“Yeah, I'm gonna knock.” 

“Okay.” Cisco shoved his hands in his pockets for a moment.“Can I knock?”

“Sure, you knock.”

Cisco knocked on the door. A moment later, it sprung open. 

“Hey, not-Lily Clay,” said Barry with a wave. 

She sighed. “Seriously?” 

“Yeah, we know you're actually Evelyn Carpenter,” Cisco added. “So you might as well cut the crap and let us in.” 

“I prefer Eve, actually,” she said as she opened the door wider. “Do you want tea?” 

“Tea?” asked Cisco incredulously. 

“Sorry, force of habit – my parents are British and according to them, every single situation calls for tea,” said Eve as she headed into the kitchen. “Including the situation where someone from the police department who you lied about your name to while telling them some ridiculous sounding story about being able to see into the future shows up at your house.” 

“I'm not here with the police,” said Barry, raising his hands in mock surrender. “I just want to talk about the whole... being able to see into the future thing.” 

“And we also want to talk about the-”

“We're gonna start with the future thing,” Barry interrupted, looking at Cisco sternly. 

“Okay,” said Eve dubiously. “I, uh, don't know exactly what to tell you. I know it sounds crazy – but you clearly took what I said seriously because, well, I didn't hear about an explosion at the city library killing a bunch of kids on a field trip.” 

“It was so weird,” said Cisco conversationally. “I had the weirdest dream the night after the day you said it was going to happen. I was sitting at the lab, watching it all happen on TV. There was this little girl in a pink dress in the footage... she'd had a whole chunk of her face blown off and she must have been in shock, because she wasn't crying anymore. She was just... staring into space while everyone around her panicked.” Cisco's voice grew grimmer as he recalled. “It was one of the most horrifying things I'd ever seen.” 

As Cisco's story continued, Eve's face went whiter and whiter. “No way, that's really interesting,” she said hurriedly. “I just have to go grab something from the other room. I'll be right back.” 

Barry glared at Cisco as their host made a quick exit. “Dude, what the hell?”

“I'm serious, that's what I dreamed about!” said Cisco defensively. “It was a really messed up dream.”

“Yeah, well, you're freaking her out.” 

“And we haven't even begun to float the whole clone thing.”

They sat still for a moment. 

“Do you think she left?” asked Cisco.

“Shit.” 

As they headed in the direction Eve had disappeared off to, they found an outside back door. Opening the door, Barry could just see Eve turning the corner at the end of the street. 

“Okay, I'm going after her,” Barry announced before running off to meet her at super speed. 

It took him a second to realise that he wasn't catching up with her. 

“What the...”

He could see her running in front of him at the same speed. It took another second to recognise the noise he was hearing – she was yelling. 

“OH MY GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?”

“I CAN EXPLAIN,” Barry yelled back. “YOU JUST NEED TO STOP AND TALK TO ME.”

To his surprise, Eve actually stopped. He doubled back to meet her and found she'd crashed right into a pile of garbage cans. 

“Little help here?” she asked weakly from under a pile of garbage.

In the distance, Barry could see Cisco jogging toward them. He sighed and grabbed Eve's hand, helping her up. 

“Okay, so you can see the future and you have super speed,” said Barry matter-of-factly. “That's interesting.”

“I had no idea I had super speed until just now,” said Eve, obviously flustered. “This is so weird.”

“God I'm out of shape,” Cisco managed to splutter out as he approached. “Being a normal human is so unfair sometimes.”

“So why did you run off?” asked Barry. 

Eve looked at Cisco. “Because he described something in the future that didn't happen.”

Cisco blinked. “I what?”

“Your dream,” said Eve. “It's what I saw in the future. The little girl in the pink dress... it's not something I'm going to forget any time soon.” 

“Whoa,” said Cisco with a frown. “That's... that's really what you saw?”

“Why do you think I went to the police?” 

“If you didn't know you had super speed until now, then maybe you didn't actually have it until now,” said Barry thoughtfully. “Cisco, do you reckon she can maybe absorb abilities?”

“There's only one way to find out,” said Cisco. “Take her down to the pipeline.”


	10. Clone Club

There had always been one thing that Cosima could count on – her utter fascination with science. And despite all the drama, the heartache, the fact that she had a genetic defect that would kill her unless she found a cure and the sheer weirdness of it all, she couldn't help but be utterly, utterly fascinated as she looked around the room at the many people who shared her face. 

Sarah, always so brave. If someone had tried to tell Cosima at the beginning of all of this that Sarah would be their unofficial leader, she'd have laughed in their face. But over the time she'd known her, Cosima had watched her sister develop a fierce loyalty to all of them. Yeah, Sarah was definitely calling the shots now when it came to the big picture stuff. And Sarah did not trust Dyad. 

“I don't want any of us in there,” said Sarah firmly. “Dyad was dodgy at the best of times and Neolution could be anywhere. It's not worth the risk without a solid plan.”

“Don't mean to brag, but breaking and entering is kind of my thing,” said Tony with a lazy grin, putting his boots on the coffee table and taking a long swig of a bottle of beer. “We could be in and out in without anyone seeing us.”

Tony, their brother. Cosima understood transgender issues as much as a cis person could, and from her limited interaction with Tony she could tell that he was totally secure in his gender identity and who he was. It was liberating to see, and fascinating – leaving her thinking about nature versus nurture, and how genetics wasn't all there was to it, and how interesting it was going to be to fully understand the differences between all of them. 

“Sarah's right,” Alison said, with a pointed look at Tony's boots. He raised his eyebrows in challenge but after a few moments, meekly put his feet back on the floor. “Dyad is dangerous. We have no idea who we can trust – who knows where Delphine is...”

Sarah, Felix and Alison all looked at Cosima guiltily. 

Cosima shook her head. “It's okay, guys – I'm not gonna, like, melt if you mention her name.”

“Wait, who's Delphine?” asked Bug curiously. 

“Cosima's ex,” said Felix. “Not to mention one of the few people at Dyad we can more or less trust who's basically disappeared.” 

“I'm sure she's fine,” Alison assured Cosima. “There are some crazy things happening, I'm sure she just hasn't checked in.”

There was a knock on the door. The room went silent. 

“Uh, were we expecting anyone?” asked Sarah, looking around the room. 

Felix stood up and headed to the door. “Okay, not a peep out of the rest of you. Be prepared to claim you're septuplets if need be.”

Cosima watched as Felix opened the door and heard a familiar voice. 

“Hi, I'm looking for Cosima?”

Sarah frowned. “Who's that?” she said quietly. 

“That's, uh, my girlfriend,” Cosima whispered back. “I mean, she was my girlfriend, but Delphine kind of... nearly killed her cos they thought she was the Castor mole, and I haven't heard from her in weeks.”

“Jesus Christ, Cos.” 

“I'll talk to her,” Cosima promised. “Just, uh, give me a minute.”

Cosima headed to the door and whisked Shay into the hallway. Felix gave her a pointed look and shut the door. 

“What are you doing here?” asked Cosima, taking in the shorter blonde. 

Shay looked at her and shrugged. “To be honest, I honestly don't know. I know I should have called and I know it's been weeks, but... I couldn't stop thinking of you. And Delphine gave me this, and, like, I don't know... gave us her blessing or something.” 

“You saw Delphine?” 

“About three weeks ago,” said Shay, handing Cosima a small piece of paper. “She gave me this and said I should tell you she said to tell me everything, if you wanted to.”

Cosima inspected the paper – a Dyad business card. “324B21.”

“I've been wracking my brain, trying to figure out what it meant,” admitted Shay. “But I guess I'm just not a scientist.”

Cosima took in a sharp intake of breath. “Whoa.”

Shay looked uncertain. “I know, it's your decision but... please, please just tell me what's going on. If you ever cared about me, even just a little bit, please.”

“I want to tell you,” said Cosima. And it was true, she realized. She wanted to tell Shay everything. “This is all... I thought you'd never want to talk to me again.” 

“So did I,” Shay countered. 

“It's just... Delphine's been kinda missing in action for the last few weeks,” Cosima admitted. “Did she say anything else to you?” 

“Just that she was going to stay out of our way,” said Shay with a frown. “Look, I'm not exactly super fond of the woman who threatened to let me bleed out in my bathtub but she seemed sincere. And she seemed... kind of resigned, you know? I got a vibe...” 

Cosima watched Shay's face intently as her words trailed off. 

“What kind of vibe.”

“That she was accepting some kind of fate,” said Shay finally. “And I know how that sounds and it's hokey or weird or morbid, but that's just... kind of what I got from that whole interaction.” Shay rolled her eyes. “Like I said, she did threaten to kill me.”

Cosima felt her stomach drop. “Okay. Um, thank you, for being honest with me.” She looked at Shay and tried to compose yourself. “Okay. My turn, I guess. So, I said we were working on some pretty sensitive, top secret scientific research.” 

Shay nodded. “You mentioned it, yeah.” 

“It's pretty out there.”

“How out there?”

Cosima took a deep breath. “Human cloning.” 

Shay blinked. “I'm sorry, what?” 

“I'm a scientist, but I'm also a subject,” said Cosima, as steadily as she could. “324B21 is an ID tag for a human clone. For me. I'm a clone.”

Shay blinked a few more times. “You're a clone.”

“I know this sounds hard to believe,” said Cosima hurriedly. “But I can prove it. There are six other clones right through this door.”

“Cosima...”

“I'm serious,” she said, ushering Shay toward the door. Cosima swung the door open and watched Shay's reaction as she took in the scene. 

Sarah, with her wild hair and leather pants, looking at Cosima in disbelief. Alison, looking up from where she'd finally caved and started sweeping the crumbs on the floor below Helena, who was devouring the last of the two dozen cupcakes Alison had brought along. Tony, still working on his beer, slouched on the sofa next to Krystal, who was giving Bug a manicure. 

“Cosima, what the hell,” said Sarah finally. “A little head's up would have been nice.”

“This is Shay,” said Cosima. “Shay, this is... uh, these are my sisters. And my brother. Sarah, Alison, Helena, Tony, Krystal and Bug.”

“You weren't kidding,” said Shay with wide eyes. “Oh my god, I heard rumors about human cloning in the military, but we all chalked it up to science fiction.”

“Delphine came to visit Shay,” Cosima explained to Sarah. “Shay thinks she was, like, expecting something to happen to her.” 

“You think Delphine's disappeared somewhere?” asked Sarah. 

Shay shook her head. “I don't know.” 

“Maybe if I went to Dyad and asked point blank,” said Cosima hurriedly. “I could demand that someone tell me what's happened to her.”

“Or we could kill two birds with one stone,” said Felix, walking across the room to a closet. “After Cosima's disastrous turn as Alison at the school trustee speech, I decided we needed to make sure we had materials since you lot are constantly impersonating each other.” He opened the closet with a flourish and pulled out a near perfect replica of Cosima's hair on a wig stand. 

“Wait, you were Alison at the school trustee speech?” asked Sarah in disbelief. “How the hell did I miss that?” 

“I'm never, ever doing that again,” Cosima protested. 

Felix rolled his eyes. “Of course you're not. It's time for someone new to have a go.” Felix grinned and gestured at Bug. “What do you say? Ready to get that dirt on Dyad with your first clone swap?”

Bug's eyes lit up. “This is so awesome.”


End file.
